Pharmacy Practice Faculty

Associate Dean Jim Backes earned a B.S. in Pharmacy and Pharm.D. from Creighton University in Omaha, NE. Prior to joining the University of Kansas, he practiced as an ambulatory care pharmacist in the Family Medicine Clinic at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He is a professor in the Pharmacy Practice and Internal Medicine departments and serves as the Assistant Director of the Atheroscierosis and LDL-Apheresis Center (ALAC) on the Kansas University Medical Center campus.

Jessica Bates earned a Pharm.D. from the University of Kansas. She completed a PGY1 residency in Community Pharmacy at the UNC Eschelman School of Pharmacy in North Carolina. She is a board certified pharmacotherapy specialist with practice experience in ambulatory care and community settings. Prior to joining KU, she served as preceptor for the Balls Foods Stores community residency program. She is a Clinical Coordinator for the Pharmacy Skills Laboratory.

Clinical Associate Professor Crystal Burkhardt earned her Doctor of Pharmacy and Masters of Business Administration at Drake University and completed an ASHP accredited geriatric specialty residency at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She is a board certified pharmacotherapy specialist. Her primary practice site is at the Landon Center on Aging located on the KUMC campus which serves as the primary source for her practice based research.

Ashley Crowl earned her PharmD from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and completed a two-year ambulatory care leadership residency at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. specializing in Ambulatory Care and Leadership. She is board certified in ambulatory care and practices at a family medicine residency clinic. Her research interests include interprofessional education, obesity, and team-based care.

Clinical Assistant Professor Larry Davidow earned a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Missouri Kansas City in 1989. As a student, Larry worked for several years at Spalitto’s Pharmacy in northeast Kansas City, Missouri and the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Clinical Assistant Professor Kimberly Dodson earned a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D) Degree from the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy in 2003. She is the Coordinator for the Pharmacy Skills Laboratory on the Wichita Campus. Dodson has worked in both community and institutional pharmacy practice settings. Her areas of interest include pharmacist’s role in diabetic education, pediatric care and dosing and health care reform.

Professor Funk earned his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas. He most recently served as a postdoctoral fellow at Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri. His research interests include molecular mechanisms of variability in clinical response to immunologically active agents used in the treatment of pediatric autoimmune disease.

Associate Professor Dennis Grauer earned his B.S. in Pharmacy in 1989 from the University of Kansas. He received his M.S. in Hospital Pharmacy in 1991 from The Ohio State University and completed an ASHP accredited residency program in 1991 at The Ohio State University Medical Center. In 2000, he earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacy from The Ohio State University.

Department of Pharmacy Practice Chair David Henry received his BS in pharmacy and MS in hospital pharmacy administration from KU. He became interim chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice in November, 2010, and chair in May, 2011. His clinical practice is with the KUMC Pediatric Hematology/Oncology team.

Assistant Professor Brittany Melton earned a B.S. in pharmaceutical science and a Pharm.D. at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana in 2009. She earned a Ph.D. in pharmacy practice from Purdue in 2013. While working on her Ph.D., she also earned the graduate certificate in survey research. She practiced in both hospital and community pharmacy settings prior to coming to KU. Melton joined the KU faculty in 2013. Her research interests include informatics, human-computer interaction, patient/medication safety and medication alert design.

Clinical Associate Professor Karen E. Moeller has appointments in both the Department of Pharmacy Practice and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine. Her primary practice site is in the adult inpatient psychiatry unit at The University of Kansas Hospitals. Moeller is active in both teaching and research. Her research interests are in the areas of substance abuse and schizophrenia.

Instructor Susie Muir earned a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Kansas in 1977. She has 30 years of hospital pharmacy experience throughout the country including Hawaii and six years of experience in retail working at Watkins Student Health Center. She has served as a preceptor for 36 years. Muir also served as primary JCAHO resource for 5 hospitals in Memphis TN.

Clinical Assistant Professor Bradley J. Newell earned a BS in Business and BA in Computer Science from Southwestern College, Winfield, Kansas in 2002. He earned a Pharm.D from the University of Kansas in 2008. He holds board certifications in ambulatory care and geriatrics and brings practice experience from community, ambulatory care and long-term care practice. He serves as the Director of the KU-Dillons Community Pharmacy Residency Program.

Clinical Assistant Professor, Cambrey Nguyen, earned a Pharm.D. from the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy in 2012. After graduation, she worked for Walgreens as a Market Pharmacist then moved on to work with pharmaceutical companies as a Medical Information Specialist at ProPharma Group. She joined the KU School of Pharmacy in March 2016 as a clinical assistant professor in drug information and is a drug information specialist in the KU Drug Information Center.

Rafia Rasu earned her Ph.D. from the University of Texas School of Public Health with a major concentration in Health Economics and Outcomes Research. Rasu completed her pharmacy degrees (BPharm and MPharm) from the University of Dhaka Bangladesh, followed by an MBA from the same institution in 2001. She joined the KU School of Pharmacy as a tenured Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice in September 2014.

Rasu is the Director of the Kansas City Antibiotic Resistance Task Force (KART) program, supervises the outcomes research lab located at the KUMC Department of Pharmacy Practice, and serves as a researcher at the Kansas City Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Her research interests are in the areas of outcomes research, pharmacoeconomics, pharmacoepidemiology, managed care, health literacy, health services research, economic evaluation of health care interventions, and public health.

Clinical Professor Janelle F. Ruisinger serves as the Director of the KU Community Pharmacy Residency Program. She is also a Clinical Pharmacist in the KU Medical Center Atherosclerosis and LDL-Apheresis Center which serves as her practice site and primary source for her practice based research.

Clinical Assistant Professor Tiffany Shin earned a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Science (2008) and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree (2010) from the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy. She went on to complete a PGY-1 residency in Pharmacy Practice at UC Health - University Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio and a PGY-2 residency in Ambulatory Care with an emphasis in Academia at the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy in Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Shin served as a clinical assistant professor at the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy for 1 year prior to joining the KU faculty in 2013.

Dr. Shin has a joint appointment with the Department of Family and Community Medicine with the KU School of Medicine. She practices at the Via Christi Family Medicine Resident Clinic on Emporia in Wichita. Her clinical and research interests include diabetes, primary care pharmacy, interprofessional practice, and medication adherence.

Clinical Assistant Professor Tiffany Shin earned a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Science and a Pharm.D. from the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy. She completed a PGY-1 residency in Pharmacy Practice at UC Health - University Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio and a PGY-2 residency in Ambulatory Care with an emphasis in academia at the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy in Columbus, Ohio.

Clinical Associate Professor Sarah Shrader graduated with Doctor of Pharmacy from KU in 2003. She completed PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and PGY2 in Family Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Clinical Assistant Professor Molly Steed earned a Pharm.D. in 2005 from the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy. She continued her training at the University of Kentucky, where she completed a PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency, a PGY2 Infectious Diseases Pharmacy Residency and The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Certificate Program.

Clinical Assistant Professor Barbara Woods earned her B.S. Pharm. from the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy and completed a M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in health services administration from KU School of Education. She also serves as director of the Multicultural Pharmacy Scholars Program for the School of Pharmacy. Her primary teaching responsibilities are Pharmacy Law and Professional Ethics.